Can I tell you how much I love being a grandma! These little dumplings have stolen my heart away! The feelings I feel when I think about them are so powerful and joyous it is hard to describe it in words. Their joyous faces say it all to me.

Children are God's sweet and precious jewels that he sends to us.... to care for and love.

I feel so incredibly blessed to have a granddaughter and a grandson.

I am going to cherish each moment with them...kissing, holding, loving and laughing with them.

I just wanted to share with you...my blogging friends...the joy I feel today.

It's not too late to order some Red White and Blue Napkin Rings to make your 4Th of July celebration even more colorful!

I used one of my denim silverware pockets with silverware tucked inside, a red bandanna napkin placed behind it with a rubber band holding it together. Then I simply slipped the red white and blue napkin rings around the whole thing to make it look spectacular on the plate!

Here are the red white and blue napkin rings on some red napkins

These denim silverware pockets are available here on my blog

Still only $1.00 for the napkin rings. Hurry and order today so you can have them for the 4th!

I recently bought the Pottery Barn "Flowers Style Recipes" and saw a fun idea using a glass cylinder vase and decided to try it. (Directions at the end)

Beauty on a budget tablescape: White dinner plates along with some sparkly lime green salad plates just make it feel like I am on vacation in the carribean! They always use bright beautiful colors and flowers.

Hot pink napkins to match the flowers in the vase and some of my white napkin rings. $1.00 each (large quantities available for weddings) The contrast of the white against the bright pink and lime green is so stunning. It reminds me of watermelons!

Simple wine goblets and basic silverware complete the look. Here is the directions for the centerpiece. 1. Using a cylinder vase that is approx 8" tall fill the lower part of it with some bendable stems with leaves. (I have these pliable flowers growing in my backyard and they annoy the heck out of me because they take over the garden but they worked perfectly to wrap inside the bottom of this vase), 2, I gathered flowers from the yard including the branches of pink crepe myrtle and secured them with rubberbands. 3. Cover the rubber bands with a ribbon and secure ribbon with a floral pin and lay them in the vase off to the side. (Measure the amount of water to so the ribbon is not underwater) There you have it..... a bit of beauty on a budget from the backyard.

I had the fun opportunity of helping a good friend of mine put together a wedding reception in an old fire station.

This proves that you can turn any room into a beautiful reception area without spending hardly a dime! The brides mother bought the paper white lanters online and saved a bundle.

This is the adorable bride and groom. When we first saw the place this is what it looked like. Lots of windows but they were covered up with those yucky vertical blinds.

Those blinds were not very cooperative when we tried to get them open. It took 5 of us to work on them to get them to slide! I can't tell you how grateful I am for my friends and their ingenuity.To make the room have some sparkle you have to add light. I have lots and lots of Christmas lights so I knew once we hung some lights it would add some sparkle with no money spent

I wanted the lights to go up and down all accross this area as this would be the dance floor and the place for the DJ. This is how it turned out. As the night progressed it looked more and more beautiful and reflected on all the windows.

Here is the before photo of the ceiling. I knew my hubby could figure out a way to hang lights all accross the ceiling and then we could hang the white paper ball lanterns from the lights and really make it look special. My husband new that just one strand of lights would not be bright enough so he combined two strings of lights by twisting them together to make it thicker. It took longer than we had anticipated. Get all the lights out, test them, interwine them and at one point... I got a little panicky thinking we would not get this done in time but he is so patient with me even when I have a freak out!

This room is so large and to try and make it feel special without spending hardly any money was a little tricky. But my man made it happen! I wish the photos were better ...it really looked so nice. Especially when it got darker. The room just glowed!

The paper lanterns are the best bang for your buck!Here is the large window area again...before we hung the lights all accross the windows Here is the same area with lights, paper lanterns and the DJ all set up! He was an amazing DJ by the way.

The music was fabulous!So here we have a little alcove if you will...we decided this would be the place where we would put the wedding cakes.....pretty huh? Ha Ha I had the brides mom buy some black landscaping tarp stuff (I was going to use it on some of the windows to add some drama with lights glowing behind it but decided I didn't need it) So we decided to make a drape type look with it and added some tulle. One of the brides Aunts was very creative and helped out a ton with this idea. Oh and did I mention she also made the brides gown!! AMAZING!! I had this wreath of Hydrangeas and Peonies that we hung from the center with fishing line.Underneath it all we used a large round table to put the wedding cakes on. NO that is not a pig sitting on there....it is an armadillo!! In Texas you gotta have an armadillo cake don't ya? That was the grooms cake and it was amazing!! More pictures are below of each cake. The white bucket on the table is holding a huge bouquet of some of the branches off my crepe myrtle trees! They looked amazing. (FREE)

Two sweet friends of the bride offered to make the wedding cakes.

Isn't this beautiful? I love the simple but elegant details on it and the fresh flowers on the top.Here is the armadillo cake in all his glory! Isn't he amazing! Every detail is there. You can see he is wearing a chef hat...that is for the groom he wants to be a chef. Then down by his stomach...you can see a pair of scissors...that is for the bride..she is a hairstylist.

Precious or what and it was delicious too!For the drinks we served water in a punch bowl with an ice ring made of water and strawberries. It made the water taste soo good. Then some of their family brought tons of fruit punch in the plastic bottles from Wal-Mart and I thought it would be yucky but let me tell you.....if you pour it into a punch bowl and add some ice rings that are made with limes, lemons and berries...it cuts the sweetness and it was really good! Who would have thought?!! Try it!

You will be surprised! This was the food table...we ran out of white tablecloths so we used the black landscaping paper and rolled it on the tables!! It looked great! We borrowed chaffing dishes for the incredible sausage and BBQ'd beef brisket that a relative made....I gotta tell ya...it was mouth watering!!! We had many ladies from our church make spinach or pasta salads and rolls were purchased from Costco!

For the centerpiece

I brought a large wire basket with big silk hydrangeas and peony flowers in it that I used at my own daughters wedding reception almost 3 years ago and placed that in the middle. It took close to 3 hours to pull this all together and about 30 minutes to take it all down with everyones help.

It was a wonderful reception and I hope you can use some of these money saving techniques for any large event you have coming up.

You know..... you can spend an arm and a leg on a reception and have it turn out really amazing.... but I really think the best receptions are the ones where lots of loved ones come together to help lift the burden of the brides family to create an atmosphere where everyone can celebrate two lives coming together to make new life together as one.

So many amazing memories of people coming together to help one another out.

I love it!

Can't wait to see what you have been up to creating beautiful centerpieces!

Cute Cute!Don't you just love the cute little jean pocket silverware holders! I made them myself. When the sun starts setting and everyone is hungry you can be set with your basket of 4th of July goodies. With very little effort your 4th of July meal will come together in a snap! My cute friend Carrie found these adorable white plates at Wal-Martin the clearance aisle.I just love them! The silverware is from Pottery Barn on sale now!

The basket is from Ikea

Here is a centerpiece idea for your 4th of July Table. I took a white footed bowl and turned it upside down and layered white dinner plates and white salad plates on top. Gathered my napkins and napkin rings and placed them on top of the plates. Sprinkled a few gold sparkly stars around and voila! Instant centerpiece.

Once again I am showing my favorite root beer bottles ringed with some of my napkin rings and a cute silver metal watering can with American Flags stuck right in the middle.

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About Me

I remember years ago looking at home decorating magazines and wishing my house looked like the photos in the magazine or that I could cook up amazing food, have a beautiful garden and be surrounded by family friends just like what they showed...I decided to live out my dreams in my own way!

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No matter where you are and what you look like. Create your own style.Let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others. The creation begins deep by yourself. Be inspired in my world and give your life an extra boost. So show yourself more and just be you ♥